Intel had two more announcements yesterday about its Atom smartphone progress. The first was a partnership with Lava, an Indian mobile handset manufacturer. The Lava Xolo X900, a rebranded Intel Atom Z2460 reference design, will go on sale early next quarter in India.

The Lava announcement marks Intel's first foray into India. Intel's previously announced Lenovo partnership begins work in China, while the Orange announcement earlier this week kicks off Europe. The non-North American focus is unusual for Intel but I suspect that we'll see Motorola change that in due time. I'm not expecting to see any North American design wins from Intel until next year though. The focus is clearly Europe and Asia today, likely due in part to the strength of the iPhone in the US.

The second announcement was a partnership with device manufacturer ZTE. Similar to the Motorola partnership announced at CES, ZTE committed to a multi-year partnership where it will build smartphones and tablets with Intel SoCs. The first Intel powered ZTE devices will ship by the end of this year.